Advanced science and technology such as nanotechnology, biology and semiconductor industry places a high demand on charged particle beam emitting devices such as electron microscopes or electron beam writing devices with respect to reliability and performance. For generating an image a focused primary charged particle beam is scanned over the specimen surface. The primary charged particles interact with the specimen and are either scattered or backscattered or generate secondary charged particles which originate from the specimen. For the purpose of this description any charged particles suitable for obtaining information about the specimen are referred to as charged signal particles. The charged signal particles are generated upon interaction of the primary charged particles with the specimen and therefore transmit information about the specimen. For example, charged signal particles are primary charged particles which are backscattered from or transmitted through and scattered by the specimen. Moreover, so-called secondary charged particles, which are generated upon interaction of the primary charged particles with the specimen, are also referred to as charged signal particles. In the case that electrons are used as charged particles, secondary charged particles are for instance known as secondary electrons. The charged signal particles are detected by appropriate particle detectors such as scintillators or the like to generate a detection signal. By synchronizing the detection signal with the scanning signal used to guide the primary charged particle beam over the specimen surface the detection signal can be used to generate an image of the specimen.
US 2004/0113075 describes for instance a transmission electron microscope which is capable of obtaining a high-resolution, wide field-of-view TEM image corresponding to the spatial resolution of the existing transmission electron microscope by using CCD TV cameras. The microscope includes four CCD cameras, for example, having their fiber tubes tilted. The use of CCD device is also described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,739,339, US 2002/0166963 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,149,074. Electron microscopes can also be used for obtaining diffraction images of crystals as for instance described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,557,104.